In September, it was Rolling Stone giving Ronda Rousey her next taste of the mainstream spotlight. Now it’s Sports Illustrated.

The 58-year-old magazine, which has a circulation in excess of 3.2 million and a reported weekly readership of 23 million people, features the Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion in its Nov. 5 issue.

And on Saturday, the “Sports Illustrated Show” will feature a segment on Rousey. The show airs Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC. Replays air next week on NBC Sports Network.

The four-page story in the magazine, titled “Ronda Rousey lays the smack down,” was written by Melissa Segura, who also posted some interview highlights online that didn’t make the final piece.

The story details Ronda’s youth, Olympic success in judo and her recent rise to fame in mixed martial arts, where over the past year she has become not just the most popular women’s fighter in the world, but one of the most popular fighters, period.

The Californian this past week was nominated for a record four World MMA Awards, including Fighter of the Year. And despite not having her next fight booked, she has remained a constant source of news after UFC and Zuffa President Dana White recently broke his lengthy aversion to the potential for women to ever fight in the UFC by saying Rousey likely had opened up that door for the near future.

The most recent win for Rousey (6-0 MMA, 4-0 SF) was yet another dominant victory, defending her Strikeforce title for the first time with a 54-second armbar win over former champ Sarah Kaufman in August. That win and subsequent meteoric rise to superstardom caused Rolling Stone to call her “the best female fighter ever” in its headline.

All six of Rousey’s pro wins, as well as three amateur fights, have ended with first-round arm bars. Miesha Tate lasted 4:27 in March. But Rousey’s three amateur opponents and five professional opponents outside of Tate lasted a combined 4:56 – an average of 37 seconds each.

Along with the new Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone, Rousey has appeared on the cover of ESPN The Magazine’s famed “Body Issue” wearing nothing but pink hand wraps; graced the back cover of UFC Magazine; appeared on Conan O’Brien’s show; guest-hosted on “TMZ Live”; and in the buildup to her fight with Kaufman, been the focus of a two-part Showtime “All Access” special.

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker in September told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) he believes Rousey has officially made the crossover into the mainstream and may be on the way to becoming a one-name star like Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods.

“She’s definitely on her way (to being a one-name star),” Coker said. “She’s so dominating right now. And I always tell everybody, ‘Don’t let the beauty fool you because this girl is a dangerous athlete, a dangerous fighter and a great martial artist.’ … But slowly and surely, the media has caught on to who this personality is.

“… She’s already one of the biggest stars in MMA, male or female, but she could become the biggest star in mixed martial arts.”

Rousey has been targeted for a fight against former featherweight champion Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos (10-1 MMA, 4-0 SF), who could return from a yearlong steroids suspension in December. But Cyborg has been hesitant to make the cut to bantamweight, and Rousey has been critical of Cyborg’s bust for steroids. With Strikeforce’s previous two scheduled events both canceled, but a return planned for January, it will be 2013 before Rousey returns.

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